1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an interactive streaming media production tool.
2. Related Art
The art of producing mixed media scenes has progressed to where individuals are able to create their scene compositions at a workstation, using appropriate software. These mixed media scenes are called xe2x80x9cmixed media contentxe2x80x9d; the associated software is called an xe2x80x9cauthoring toolxe2x80x9d; and the persons creating the video content are called xe2x80x9ccontent creatorsxe2x80x9d. After creation, mixed media content can be disposed at a server and sent, using any streaming or broadcast technique, to a client for presentation to a user.
One problem in the known art is that content creators are very concerned by the quality versus resource occupation tradeoff their mixed media content imposes (on the server, the client, and the communication link between them) when sent from the server to the client and presented to the user. In existing audiovisual systems, fixed resource usage schemes are the most common way to solve this problem, but this is obviously non-optimal. More sophisticated policies include algorithms to balance between peaks and lows so that a level of non-constant resource usage can be tolerated (for instance for bandwidth or memory usage), as this can increase quality quite significantly. However, these resource control mechanisms are not available to the content creator directly, but to skilled engineers who are able to tune these complex algorithms. Mixed media content adds to the flexibility as it is possible to adjust the resource usage by modifying the advent or coding scheme of some media in the broadcast in order to fulfill the given constraints. If the content requires more resources for transmission or decoding than available, presentation of that content can be degraded or inaccurate, and exhibit jerkiness or other artifacts that make it unpleasant to watch and degrade any intended message or effect of that video content.
Moreover, creation of mixed media content is often complex, involving integration of objects to be displayed, locations and times at which those objects are to be displayed, and a set of possible special effects, such as texture and transparency, fade in and out, and the like. It would be advantageous to allow content creators to interactively (as they are creating video content) use information about the resource load likely to be imposed by the content they are creating. Preferably, that resource load information would be responsive not only to the mixed media content itself, but also to characteristics of the server, the client, and the communication link between them.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a new technique for interactive streaming mixed media production.
The invention provides a method and system for interactive streaming mixed media production. In a preferred embodiment, a mixed media content creation tool includes a resource-computation element (also referred to as the xe2x80x9ccorexe2x80x9d) that computes the likely resource load to be imposed on a server, communication link, and client device, when sent by the server to the client and presented to a user at the client. The resource-computation element is responsive to amounts of communication bandwidth available using the communication link, presentation buffer space and computing resources available at the client, and other measures of resource load. The resource-computation element attempts to optimize resource usage by the mixed media content (such as, for example, rearranging the timing of sending elements within the video content to maintain communication bandwidth within an associated limit and while simultaneously maintaining buffer space within another associated limit). The system also includes a presentation element that responds to the resource-computation element, and to user requests, and interactively presents measures of projected resource usage by the mixed media content, comparisons of that projected resource usage with available resources, and comparisons of that projected resource usage before and after optimization.
The invention has general applicability to interactive computation of resource usage in the design of mixed media presentations, not limited specifically to streaming media, and not necessarily related to the specific applications disclosed herein. For example, embodiments of the invention can include one or more of, or some combination of, the following applications:
Media other than streaming mixed media, such as general purpose data transfer;
Optimization of resource usage when the resources are other than communication band-width or buffer space.
Moreover, techniques used by a preferred embodiment of the invention for interactive computation of resource usage can be used in contexts other than the specific applications disclosed herein. For example, techniques used by embodiments of the invention for optimization of sending streaming mixed media objects, fitting resource load within multiple constraints, and presentation of resource load in relation to constraints, are all generally applicable to fields other than the specific applications disclosed herein.